Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to silicone polymer ligands for binding to quantum dots. The silicone polymer ligands contain a multiplicity of amine, carboxy, and/or phosphine binding groups suitable for attachment to quantum dots. The present invention also describes a process for the preparation of quantum dot binding ligands.
Background Art
High performance down-converting phosphor technologies will play a prominent role in the next generation of visible light emission, including high efficiency solid-state white lighting (SSWL). In addition, such technologies are also applicable to near infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) light emitting technologies. Down-conversion from ultraviolet (UV) or blue light emitting semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) into blue, red, and green wavelengths offers a fast, efficient and cost-effective path for delivering commercially attractive white light sources. Unfortunately, existing rare-earth activated phosphors or halophosphates, which are currently the primary source for solid-state down-conversion, were originally developed for use in fluorescent lamps and cathode ray tubes (CRTs), and therefore have a number of critical shortfalls when it comes to the unique requirements of SSWL. As such, while some SSWL systems are available, poor power efficiency, poor color rendering, and extremely high costs limit this technology to niche markets such as flashlights and walkway lighting.
Furthermore, LEDs often suffer from reduced performance as a result of internal reflection of photons at the chip/coating interface. Typically, LEDs are encapsulated or coated in a polymeric material (which may comprise phosphors) to provide stability to the light-emitting chip. Currently these coatings are made by using an inorganic or organic coating that has a very different refractive index than the base material (i.e., the chip), which results in a detrimental optical effect due to the refractive index mismatch at the interface between the two materials. In addition, the temperature of the LED can reach in excess of 100° C. To allow for the expansion and contraction that can accompany this temperature rise, a compliant polymeric layer (e.g., silicone) is often placed in contact with the chip. In order to provide additional stability to the LED, this compliant layer is often further coated with a hard shell polymer.
The resulting LED structure suffers loss of light at the chip/compliant polymer interface due to the lower refractive index of the polymer coating in relation to the LED. However, if the refractive index of the compliant layer is increased, even greater loss will occur due to the high refractive index/low refractive index interface between the compliant polymer and the hard shell polymer due to internal reflection.
There are several critical factors which result in poor power efficiencies when using traditional inorganic phosphors for SSWL. These include: total internal reflection at the LED-chip and phosphor layer interface resulting in poor light extraction from the LED into the phosphor layer; poor extraction efficiency from the phosphor layer into the surroundings due to scattering of the light generated by the phosphor particles as well as parasitic absorption by the LED chip, metal contacts, and housing; broad phosphor emission in the red wavelength range resulting in unused photons emitted into the near-IR; and poor down-conversion efficiency of the phosphors themselves when excited in the blue wavelength range (this is a combination of absorption and emission efficiency). While efficiencies improve with UV excitation, additional loss due to larger Stokes-shifted emission and lower efficiencies of LEDs in the UV versus the blue wavelength range makes this a less appealing solution overall.
Quantum dots were first developed in the 1980s at Bell Labs and have the unique ability to emit light at a single spectral peak with narrow line width, creating highly saturated colors. Additionally, it is possible to tune the emission wavelength based on the size of the quantum dots. This ability to tune the emission wavelength enables display engineers to custom engineer a spectrum of light to maximize both the efficiency and color performance of the display.
Using the size-dependent properties of quantum dots it is possible to produce a Quantum-Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF). The film combines trillions of red- and green-emitting quantum dots in a thin sheet that emits finely tuned white light when stimulated by blue light. The QDEF can be custom formulated for different display technologies—some for a wide color gamut and some for energy/light efficiency. This ability to tune the properties allows display engineers to tune the backlight spectrum of a display to meet exact performance needs.